Moar planting……

…… in the garden today.

Put the lettuce plantlings in and planted the pea seeds. Bunged some spinach, spring onion and pak choi seeds too.

Had to bodge up some netting with Rob to stop the cats digging everything up. The bastards. They need reminding that this bed is not the terrace’s largest litter tray constructed just for them. Already, I have had to replant some sweet peas and remove some poo.

The tomatoes are doing well.

And Ronnie met Ruby. Not sure it was a roaring success. There was barking and scrabbling (Ruby) and hissing and bristling (Ronnie).  They both retreated in the end.  Don’t know about Ruby, but Ronnie looked a bit dis-chuffed with the whole encounter.

Excitingly, we also went to the tip and got rid of several bags of garden waste.  Woo – it’s the fast life in Derbyshire

 

Typical Bank Holiday……

…… it’s pissing down.  Hasn’t stopped all day, only varied in intensity.  Mind you,  it is desperately needed.  We went out anyway for a drive round – going past Ogston Reservoir, the water levels are very low.  We have had two very dry winters, and there was hardly any rain in February or March.  Hopefully, everything will get a bit of a sprout-on after the wet day.  Can’t remember what garden centre we ended up at, but there were plenty of water features (some intentional, some not) and wee piles of snow.  Some bigger piles of snow up on the high parts too, banked up in the lee of dry stone walls.  Very wet, with lots of low drifting clouds.

Sun again……

…… we bake in thee.

Not a very exciting photograph, I must admit.  It’s Ash Green Hospital car park, looking across to Ash Gate Hospice in Chesterfield.  I was sitting in the car making work phonecalls and doing some notes.  It was so sunny and beautiful – birds singing, sun beaming, blue skies.  How lucky I am that I’m not stuck in an office.  I’d just spent the preceding half-hour sitting in the garden of a nursing home with a delightful gentleman talking about him going home and making sure he understood what his care package was.  I can certainly think of worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Red……

…… is my wee Japanese maple. It was another beautiful day today in Derbyshire.

According to my iPhone weather thingy, it was 17 degrees (or 63) today, but sitting in my car in Chesterfield, I felt as if I was sitting in a mobile greenhouse.  Not bad for March.  Historically, I remember that all my childhood birthdays were cold, windy and drizzly.  This may not be true, but that’s my memory of them.  This year I had a day out rambling in North Yorkshire (without a jacket or hat) followed by the loveliest meal out I’ve had in a long time, and  a bottle of wine in a hot tub looking at the stars.  If this is global warming, BRING IT!!

Ick……

…… it’s just not very nice out there this morning.

Update: it got better.  The rain stopped, the sky turned blue.  That mysterious orb of flame known as The Sun made an appearence.  Then, just as two of us were due to leave the office for meetings at 3pm, the heavens opened.  It pissed it down.  Fortunately this passed very quickly.  When I finally got out of meetings and finished work calls, it was 6.30pm.  The sky was clear and the moon was huge and glowing.  Frost tomorrow.

Round & round……

…… the laundry goes. Can’t be doing with all this wet washing hanging about, so am at the laundrette getting it dried. Dead exciting for a Sunday morning. However, a better night’s sleep was had: dreamt we had a lovely wee house in Waiheke Island overlooking the beach. My subconscious is clearly fed-up with cold weather and is craving a warm sandy beach.

Instead of a warm beach, we had a cold Peak District.  We drove up to Ladybower Reservoir and over Snake Pass to Glossop, coming back home via Tideswell.  Ladybower was smooth like glass and the color of molten lead.  There was nowhere as much snow as I thought there would be (or Rob hoped).  Hwever, we saw a grouse up on Featherbed Top, a heron stalking in a stream and a flock of lapwing taking off from a field.

On Snake Pass

Ladybower Reservoir

It’s oh so……

…… cold. It’s bloody freezing. The garden is beautiful and white, with a slightly hazy blue sky dusted with wispy wee clouds. But it’s still bloody freezing. I haven’t ventured out yet, and am wrapped in a blanket on the sofa in my jammies. Plenty of tea needed, maybe a bowl of porridge with vanilla and honey before I consider a shower. Be safe and warm wherever you are today.

In other news……

…… I went out last night, in the cold, and dug the snow and compacted ice out from around my car.  This was to make sure that all I needed to do this morning was to defrost the car before driving to the gym before work.  Imagine my surprise this morning when I got up to discover that some tosser had dumped a heap of snow in front of my car, and that the snow had frozen overnight.  I dug it out and went to the gym.  What an inconsiderate bastard.  On the plus side, I got some exercise digging the snow……

Limping along……

……in sunny (breezy) Derbyshire.  I have damaged my tibialis posterior tendon in my left foot. Go on. Google it. I had to.  It bloody hurts and I’m hopping or wielding crutches at the moment.   I did spend a week hirpling about on it before being badgered into going to see my GP, who prodded and flexed my foot, asked a million and one questions and then pronounced “tibialis posterior tendinopathy.”  A hurty ankle to you and me.   Irritatingly, I can flex it up and down no problems, but lateral movement (or balancing) is painful.

Never mind.  We went to the Wye Valley for the weekend.  Started in a pub in Oxfordshire where Mark Chilvers was playing a gig.  His first.  We heckled and sang, as  supportive friends do.  We sang all the rude versions of his songs, and some of us even did the actions (thanks Lex).  All in all it was a very good night, except when someone kicked me in the ankle (the bad one).  Sweary words were said.

Then we went and stayed at a bunkhouse just outside Christchurch.  The plan had been to go walking in the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean, but hopalong put a stop to that. We drove round looking at the scenery (through the pissing rain) and had a nice dinner at a pub I can’t recall the name of near Symonds Yat.

We drove home and had a day out to Stanton Moor and Nine Ladies stone circle.  Which is a bit of a trek when you’re only firing on one cylinder. However, the sun shone and it was lovely.

Hopping along on Stanton Moor

Snow Argonath!

Pillars of Argonath (in snow)

 

Argonath